Three short, photography-based commissions that will explore host/migrant communities in the NE of England.

Side Gallery has three short, photography-based, £3,000 commissions available, to explore host/migrantcommunities in the North East of England. The North East has a number of long-standing ethnic minority communities – the South Shields Yemeni community dates from the end of C19th – but it was the UK government?s asylum seeker dispersal policy in 2001 that began a radical cultural transformation in the region.

Amber/Side?s engagement with this story began in 2003 when photographer and collective member Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen, who had documented the working class Newcastle community of Byker in the 1970s, was invited back to workin the Byker Wall Estate, which had recently become one of the North East?s major locations for asylum seeker housing. With support from Baring Foundation and Arts Council England, Side Gallery has launched Homelands to generate new documentary production exploring the stories involved in this cultural shift.

All details for this commission are available on Side Gallery's website.